by Richard Bierck - Publications - Faculty & Research

17 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Teaming in the Twenty-First Century

to do better things." Edmondson cites her academic mentors at Harvard—J. Richard Hackman, a leading thinker in team effectiveness, and Chris Argyris, an organizational learning expert—as core influences. "This [teaming] was a blending of... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

06 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

What We Learned from Reading Jeff Bezos’ Patents

answer is yes. The founder’s early fascination with innovation proved key because he remains an active inventor with many patents to his name. Bezos has been known to view Amazon as “a technology company pioneering e-commerce, not a retailer.” We decided to test our... View Details

Keywords: by Tricia Gregg and Boris Groysberg; Retail

01 May 2013
What Do You Think?

Why Isn’t ‘Servant Leadership’ More Prevalent?

Summing Up Is the Term "Servant Leadership" an Oxymoron? Servant leadership (SL) is a concept that triggers a great deal of interest, judging by my e-mail inbox and the number of responses to this month's column. Many comments... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

06 Jun 2011
Research & Ideas

Why Leaders Lose Their Way

compensation for their accomplishments, few leaders start out seeking only money, power, and prestige. Along the way, the rewards—bonus checks, newspaper articles, perks, and stock appreciation—fuel increasing desires for more. This creates a deep desire to keep it... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

05 Dec 2022
What Do You Think?

How Would Jack Welch’s Leadership Style Fare in Today’s World?

doubt about what they think of Welch as a leader, although Cohan's is a more careful, balanced appraisal. For the Gen Zers and Millennials among us who don’t even recognize the name, this is a guy who, when he retired, was called “the CEO of the 20th century” View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Industrial Products; Media & Broadcasting; Medical Devices & Supplies; Manufacturing

04 Oct 2010
Research & Ideas

Introverts: The Best Leaders for Proactive Employees

We often expect corporate executives to conform to certain extroverted CEO stereotypes: C for charismatic, E for effusive, and O for outgoing. To wit: Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson, who very publicly flew around the world in a hot... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

24 Apr 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Courage: The Defining Characteristic of Great Leaders

Unilever Sustainable Living Plan with well-defined metrics the following year. Polman’s efforts in his first eight years returned 214 percent to Unilever shareholders. Nevertheless, Kraft Heinz, owned by Brazilian private equity firm 3G,... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Auto; Food & Beverage

08 Mar 2021
In Practice

COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?

A year ago, COVID-19 forced many companies to send employees home—often with a laptop and a prayer. Now, with COVID cases subsiding and vaccinations rising, the prospect of returning to old office routines appears more possible. But will employees want to flock back to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

by the government, we had to furlough 90% of our team. They still receive benefits but no wages. We plan on bringing them all back as soon as we are allowed to reopen, but for now they have no income from the company. Many in our industry... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

13 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Can We Get To Where We Need To Go?

first time a wide range of top industry CEOs, government leaders, and customers of transportation services, was designed to help provide that purpose by assessing the state of the industry, identifying innovations both in technology and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Transportation; Air Transportation; Auto

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Breaking the Code of Change

Two dramatically different approaches to organizational change are being employed in the world today, according to our observations, research, and experience. We call these Theory E and Theory O of change. Like all managerial action, these approaches are guided View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Nitin Nohria

18 Aug 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Courageous Leader Triggers a Moral Revolt of CEOs Against Trump

business community. It all came down to moral leadership. When the president refused to take the lead in speaking out against the demonstration in Charlottesville by neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, and white supremacist groups, America’s CEOs... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

28 Jan 2020
Book

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

conventional wisdom isn’t enough to produce significant innovation; we must go further. Our thinking can too easily get confined by silos and structures that limit us to what is familiar, what we see every day, what the people around us... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

17 Jan 2023
In Practice

8 Trends to Watch in 2023

As 2023 begins, businesses and employees face an uncertain economy and labor market, as the twin dilemmas of inflation and interest rates weigh on forecasts. Harvard Business School faculty share the top trends that they believe will shape the workplace and markets... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

06 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

Four Strategies for Making Concessions

Richard E. Walton and Robert B. McKersie's book A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations: An Analysis of a Social Interaction System (ILR Press, 1991). The head of a manufacturing firm was preparing to initiate talks with the leadership... View Details

Keywords: by Deepak Malhotra

04 Apr 2023
What Do You Think?

How Does Remote Work Affect Innovation?

printed out the pages containing the results he didn’t like, highlighted the offending ads, posted them on a bulletin board on the wall of the kitchen by the pool table, and wrote THESE ADS SUCK in big letters across the top. Then he went... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

15 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Five Imperatives for Improving Health Care

conference and survey from Harvard's business and medical schools may prove particularly timely. Delivered by the Forum on Healthcare Innovation, which was formed last year with encouragement from the respective deans of the two... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

08 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Representation Matters: Building Case Studies That Empower Women Leaders

classroom. Understanding the elusive female protagonist Knowing this, we wanted to look at the HBS case output and curricula through a gender lens. We first took a deep dive into the cases published between 2008 and 2015 and found that 20 percent of cases written View Details

Keywords: by Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg

06 Oct 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

18 Tips Managers Can Use to Lead Through COVID's Rising Waters

Protect and Pivot Boris Groysberg, Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration. MARKETING Tip: Tailor your brand stories to the new reality. Which types of brand stories should companies tell? After KFC was chastised View Details